Definition
In civil and feudal law, *adequatio* is the equalization or equal division of property among co-inheritors — specifically, the process by which an estate is apportioned in equal shares among those entitled to receive it jointly. The term appears principally in the context of coparcenary, where heirs of equal degree divide inherited land or property so that each receives a proportionate and equivalent share.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Not in standard modern dictionaries as an English word. *Adequatio* survives in philosophical discourse, most famously in the scholastic phrase *adequatio intellectus et rei* (the conformity of the intellect to the thing), meaning correspondence or agreement between two things.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not listed. The root concept — making things equal or adequate to one another — was understood through the related English adjective "adequate," meaning sufficient or proportionate.
The philosophical meaning (correspondence, conformity) and the legal meaning (equal division of property) share the same Latin root but operate in entirely different registers. A researcher encountering *adequatio* in a civil or feudal law source should not carry over any philosophical connotation; the legal usage is strictly transactional and concerns partition.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Adequatio* is a narrow term of art that surfaces almost exclusively in Latin civil law texts and commentaries on feudal tenure. Researchers are unlikely to encounter it in English common law sources under this name; the functional equivalent in English legal writing is "equality of partition" or simply "division among coparceners."
The primary trap is scarcity: because *adequatio* appears rarely and without English translation in older sources, a researcher scanning for doctrine about coparcenary division may miss passages where the concept is central but identified only by this Latin term. Burrill's gloss directing readers to Hotoman's *Verbis Feudalibus* and Cowell's *Interpreter* is the practical bibliographic thread — both are findable in historical legal collections and provide the feudal tenure context Burrill assumes the reader already holds.
Corpus connections: In Law Mind sources, *adequatio* links most naturally to discussions of coparcenary inheritance, the feudal law of succession, and partition doctrine. When researching the mechanics of equal division in inherited estates — particularly in pre-modern civil law or early common law contexts — *adequatio* may appear as a term of precision where English sources use looser vocabulary. Cross-check against entries for coparcenary, parceners, and partition to triangulate doctrine across Latin and English sources.
Jurisdictional note: The term belongs to civil and feudal law lineage and does not appear as operative vocabulary in American or post-colonial common law jurisdictions. Its relevance to modern research is historical and comparative.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill is the sole historical dictionary source available for this entry, and his treatment is appropriately concise: *adequatio* means a making equal or sharing equally, sourced to Hotoman's *Verbis Feudalibus* and Cowell's *Interpreter* under "Coparceners." Burrill offers no extended analysis, which reflects the term's function as a descriptor of a mechanical legal process rather than a contested legal concept.
What historical dictionaries do not supply is any discussion of how *adequatio* interacted with the practical mechanics of partition — whether by physical division, valuation, or lot — or how disputes about unequal shares were resolved. For that procedural content, researchers must look beyond the dictionary literature to the feudal law treatises Burrill cites.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Coparcenary; Feudal Land Tenure; Partition of Property
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